


Michelinie’s Diner

by merelypassingtime



Category: Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Crack, Meta, Metafiction, Other, Seriously: Pure Crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22289494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merelypassingtime/pseuds/merelypassingtime
Summary: Venom is hungry and Eddie’s worried about the safety of his liver. Alas, they get more unnerved than nourished at the first restaurant they try.
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 21
Kudos: 86





	Michelinie’s Diner

**Author's Note:**

> Everytime I watch Venom, it bothers me a disproportionate amount when they cut from Eddie and Venom walking down the street in broad daylight discussing cannibalism right to Mrs Chen’s in full darkness.  
> This started as a fic to fill that time jump, and ended up being this…  
> Sorry. ;)

**But can we get something to eat now?** Venom asked. **Otherwise your liver it’s starting to look really, really good and juicy.**

Eddie was pretty sure he was kidding, but not entirely sure. He shifted around nervously, trying and failing to get his bearings. Somewhere during their long rambling walk Eddie, more focused on the conversation than the scenery, had lost track of where they were.

He started to look around for some familiar street or landmark, planning to stop by Mrs Chen’s on the way home for something to save his liver, but to no avail. He did however spot a dingy, little diner a little way down the hill from them just past the crowd of sailors waiting outside a club. A neon sign above the door proclaimed the place to be Michelinie’s Diner, or would have if several of the letters weren’t burnt out.

With more confidence than he truly felt, Eddie said, “Yeah, definitely. I know a place down here.” 

With a jerk his body turned and started an ungainly marching towards the restaurant, forcing him to flail his arms to keep his balance.

“Hey!” he said. “Don’t do that!”

**Do what?**

“Take over my body like that.”

 **It is our body,** Venom pointed out.

“Maybe, but that just means you’ll get hurt too when you make _our_ body fall face-first on the concrete.”

**Like I would let us get hurt.**

Eddie smiled at that but still said, “Yeah, well, it’s still polite to ask first.”

**And it is polite to get us to the food faster.**

“Give me control again and I’ll hurry, I promise.”

 **Fine.** Venom said, retreating from his legs and back into his chest, letting Eddie take control with barely a hitch. 

True to his word, as soon as their stride evened out Eddie sped up, not quite breaking into a jog, but definitely into a power walk.

Every step closer lowered his hopes for the restaurant though. What he’d originally classified as dingy was quickly being downgraded to derelict, and he began to wonder if the place was as open as the sign in the window claimed. He hesitated for a moment in front of the door, trying to peer through the grime caked window for any movement, but to no avail. 

Venom had no such doubts. **Hungry!**

Eddie huffed in resignation and tried the door handle, half surprised when it swung open, the bell attached to it making a racket. Swallowing his misgivings, he stepped into the diner. 

As they crossed the threshold the fluorescent lights seemed to flare, blinding him. He blinked several times to clear his vision, then a few more times trying to reconcile the flash of light to the dimly lit room before him.

It was just as shabby as he’d expected, with worn booths lining the walls, upholstered in cracking grey vinyl repaired with duct tape, and stools that might once have been red but were now a faded, tired sort of pink before the long counter. Still, the place was clean and surprisingly busy, which Eddie took as a good sign, and he could feel Venom coiling in his tummy, enjoy the smell of fried food and meat. 

The special board on the wall sounded promising too, offering triple chocolate pancakes and tater tot pizza. Oddly, the description of both dishes included the line, “Now with even more chocolate!” Eddie wasn’t sure if that was a joke or an honest mistake.

Feeling unsure, he took a few steps in and looked around for a waitress or something, but the bearded guy behind the counter working the grill seemed to be the only employee. When Eddie finally caught the man’s eye, the man nodded his head at the little podium that held the cash register. 

This time Eddie noticed the sign on it that read, “Please Seat Yourself.” He’d overlooked it at first because the larger plaque underneath it that proclaimed in bold red letters 'ABSOLUTELY NO PETER PARKERS’ with ‘or Lee Price’ added in black Sharpie had piqued his curiosity. 

He wondered who Peter Parker was and why he was banned. Maybe the bearded guy would have time later to tell him. Looking around the crowded room, he wasn’t sure he would though.

Scanning the room, he wasn’t even sure he would be able to find a place to sit down. It looked like every booth was taken, mostly by single men sitting alone and scowling down at their coffee cups. 

It wasn’t until his second look around that he noticed how eerily similar the occupant at each table was. He wondered if it was the hangout for a local gym or something because many of the occupants were huge, almost grotesque muscled men. And they were all blonde.

Indeed, the more he looked the more similarities he found, only the details of each man weren’t the same, like mannequins in a clothing store window. They had different haircuts, from military buzz cut to wildly outdated mullet, and different clothes, mostly various degrees of homeless haute couture but also more distinctive outfits including a priest in full vestments and a guy still sporting the sort of baggy pants that Eddie wouldn't admit to owning in the nineties and a bright red shirt that claimed he was a nice guy (though Eddie didn’t quite believe it), but on the same body and with the same face.

The only exception was the booth in the back corner, and it was exceptional in its own right. One side of the booth been removed to accommodate two men in wheelchairs. They were different from the bodybuilder type but like one another, down to how both their legs ended at mid-thigh. As the man across from them told some story with a lot of hand gestures, a glint of metal drew Eddie’s eye underneath the table and to his futuristic metal prosthetic leg. He was willing to bet his legs ended mid thigh too.

Eddie started to back towards the door, and that was before he noticed the symbiotes.

It said a lot about just how quickly he’d become accustomed to his own symbiote that it took so long for the little hints of black to register, but once they did he saw them everywhere. 

At one table a thin tentacle reached casually for the salt, at another a flash of goo coiled briefly around a thick neck, half hidden under the man’s stringy yellow hair, and one man at the counter was openly feeding a small black head bites of his pancake.

Eddie took another step back.

 **Eddie,** Venom said, his voice unnaturally small in Eddie’s mind. **Eddie, these people all have symbiotes.**

When Eddie just continued to stare, Venom continued, **Eddie, most of them look like us too.**

“Yeah,” Eddie whispered, a hand behind him fumbling for the door.

**I don’t like it here.**

“Me neither, buddy.”

He finally found the bar on the diner’s door and they pushed it open, watching the room warily as they did. Eddie winced as the bell attached to the door jangled, but no one in the room looked up and with another hasty step they were back out on the street.

As the door swung closed in front of them there was another blinding flash of light. When Eddie could open his eyes again the diner was gone, replaced by a wall of solid cinder blocks, so covered in graffiti that it was impossible to tell what color it had originally been.

Staring at the wall, Eddie whispered, “What the fuck? You saw all that too right?”

 **Yes,** Venom agreed. **Does that happen a lot on Earth?**

“No. No, I can safely say that never happens anywhere outside a bad sci fi story.”

Eddie reached out to touch the wall, but Venom jerked their arm back. **Do you really want to do that?**

Curiosity warred with common sense in Eddie’s head. Curiosity probably would have won but Venom spun him around before he could reach out again.

 **No,** he said. **We are going. If you don’t walk away, I will walk for the both of us.**

Eddie couldn’t really argue with the logic of that, so he picked a direction at random and quickly they walked into the rapidly gathering dusk.

Venom didn’t let him look back.


End file.
